From the opening keys of the piano-led intro and first full track ‘Let The Music Play,’ there’s a beautiful and slightly melancholic thread throughout Penner & Muder's Same Monkeys Different Zoo. This is a house album, however, and groove does not suffer as the stripped back drum&vox of ‘All About You’ aptly proves. Whether it be the dubby feel of ‘Sunset Blvd’ or the future soul of ‘Time Has Come,’ the album is bristling with emotion and even in tracks like the decidedly austere ‘Solitary Movement’ (with Muder’s long term friend/label partner Chopstick) there’s a real sense of feeling. This impassioned theme culminates in the stunning ‘Are You Lost,’ a future classic in the making if ever there was one. Balancing melody with groove, melancholy with uplift and dancefloor sensibilities with a home listening vibe is a rare feat, but Penner & Muder have pulled it off and have done so with a heavily song based LP – a true testament to the talent here.

Nils Penner took some time out of his busy schedule to answer some questions for us at Handsomeclub:When and where were you both born?

John was born in Hamburg, Germany 1979. Nils in Bremen, Germany 1977. Bremen is situated 100 km south of Hamburg.

With the release of his highly anticipated debut album Still Here, our man Colin McBean took some time to talk to us about the album and all things Mr. G...

When and where were you born, and have you always been in the UK?

Born in Derby in the Midlands, August,1961, and yeah, I’ve always been here……….and……Still Here.
What got you interested in house/techno music?

I’m an analog freak so it’s always been about synths. I didn’t know at the time, but that was the link. The sounds from Studio One to Stevie to Eno to Joey Beltram. It’s about the sound and rawness – that’s my link with house & techno.

When and why did you choose to start to making your own music?

I met Keith from Bang The Party and went to his studio at Interchange. Then with Cisco becoming KCC late eighties, early nineties………...Always had a crazy love of music and buying wax at a very early age, it was a natural progression.

Who were your music influences when first getting involved in the music business, and why?

There were no real influences. It was just another part of music being in my life……..I did love what Jeff, Joey, Maurizio and Luke were doing but then I was still buying lots of other music which was non dance as well. I suppose Cisco was a big influence cause he knew all the tech stuff and I didn’t, so it was a big learning curve and interesting.

This week sees the release of Moodmusic’s Starstyling compilation, which is a fine selection of some of the best moments from their recent catalog. Label owner Sasse provides a large helping of fresh house and techno featuring tunes from many of the Moodmusic camp, such as Tigerskin's already classic “Holy Grail” along with the newest release from Dave DK and Holger Zilkse, “You Will Find Out,” which we can’t get enough of...Sasse took some time out to answer some questions for all things concerning Moodmusic and what’s in store next.

When and where were you born, and have you always been in Berlin?

Originally born and raised in Finland in May 1973, I´ve been in Germany for the last 10 years, in Berlin for 6 years now. As much as I Iove the city for its vibrant scene, it´s a very nice and chilled place to live.

What got you interested in house/techno music?

It must have been the first wave of acid house which hit the UK, and eventually also the rest of Europe in the end of the 80s which made the impact. I remember taping radio shows in late 80s with italo, proto house and early Chicago stuff and dreaming of going into clubs, as where I lived in a small industrial city in Finland there [were] only shitty pubs and discos. Eventually I started traveling to London and NYC to buy records and visit clubs, which led to promoting my own nights in the early 90s, first doing proper raves, then doing club nights and so on..

This is the debut full-length release on Highgrade by Berlin-based Heinrichs & Hirtenfellner. The duo asked the question: "Is there life in outer space?" and were answered easily by the sound-universe that they created on Dark Orbit. From the mesmerizing glitter of "Supernova," to the funky vocal cuts drifting through "Starry Fog," to the off-the-beaten-track explorations of "Hubble," this album maps out new galaxies and star systems of sound. "Quantum Jump" is a springboard to a parallel universe made out of pulsating bass and vocal sequences, echoing to us from the depths of space. The "Black Hole" in Heinrichs & Hirtenfellner's world works somehow backwards -- instead of eating energy, it spills all over -- making the impact of this track as powerful as a meteor storm. "Alpha Particle" sounds like a lunar probe on speed, while "My Gravitation" shows perfectly how to build massive club-hits from dreamy sequences. Despite all this journeying, Dark Orbit never gets lost: it remains a fresh club album that always shows a subtle grasp of humor, weird sounds, and small oddities -- the perfection of the added human touch. The CD version also includes small interludes which serve as anchoring, central themes, like map-coordinates on a pleasant flight.

EXERCISE ONEIn Cars We Rust
(MOBILEE 008CD)

This is the debut full-length release by Berlin duo Exercise One (Marco Freivogel and Ingo Gansera). DJs know them as crafters of cracking tracks on wax. Clubbers around the world know them as an unstoppable live act. Now, prepare to meet another side of Exercise One. On In Cars We Rust, the dancefloor stormers are still here, and the record's flow is guided by the same spirit of improvisation that drives their live sets. But the clubbier material is rounded out by sounds we've never heard from Exercise One before: gorgeous, enveloping ambient tracks; soundtrack-ready synthesizer ballads; even a kind of retro-futurist electro-pop. In Cars We Rust is the studio product of their hands-on approach, as passages of spontaneous creation are edited, collaged and remixed into a strikingly varied, startlingly cohesive whole. "Circeo" comes on like dawn, with a rustle of percussion and muted horns giving way to slowly unfurling chords and gentle electro-acoustic chatter -- featuring Seth Josel on guitar, it's an ambient palate-cleanser to prep you for the deep-listening experience to follow. The beats begin on "1994," which eases out of the intro with shimmering keys and a shimmying beat, nearly dissolving into bubbly echoes of Steve Reich. "It Is Happening Again" features home-hewn breaks and a monster bass line courtesy of Jacopo Carreras. "Trapdoor" cools off with a taut, undulating spiral of metallic percussion and oscillators. "The Drunken Tinman" is low-slung funk, skipping dry drum machines across a sludge-pool of charred, muddied bass and dubby chords. After that, "Good Kid" rouses with cinematic strings and a drunken piano line. "No News Today" features Argenis Brito's distinctive vocals, and is the perfect fusion of electronic production with a classic pop sensibility. "Sleeper" boasts lush chords, diamond-tipped drums and spiraling oscillators. "What You Say" is a lean, mean percussive groover, and "Don't Slip" slows the tempo and loses itself in a field of freaky bleeps. The breathtaking finale "Just Not!" feels like an amalgam of all of Exercise One's deepest tendencies, as ropy bass lines, dissipating chords and intricate rhythms spin together into a hypnotic, pulsing whole.

San Francisco's annual Fleet Week is over, but I'm still reeling in its aftermath. Every year on the last day of the air show I get together with a few good friends, pack a picnic and some drinks and head to a good vantage point to watch a few fly-boys do what they do best; that is, make a spectacle of their exceptional flying skills. Every day, the show is punctuated by an exemplary performance put on by the U.S. Navy Blue Angels who exhibit nothing but aviation at its extreme finest. It seems like everyone in San Francisco has something to say about the Angels, whether its the oft repeated dour expression of dislike or the rare wide-eyed, glowing expression of praise. Perhaps that's because their presence is impossible to ignore -- it's not every day that one hears what sounds like God taking a seam ripper to the sky. (Thankfully, the Fleet Week air shows did not coincide with the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival this year, much to the delight of all the music lovers who flocked to Golden Gate Park.) I, for one, enjoy their ear-trembling display of non-normalcy. I understand those who argue that the Angels represent a militaristic waste of tax dollars and non-renewable resources, that they're noisy and scary, and that they exist essentially as a weapon, but just look at what they do! There really is nothing quite like them. No matter what is said against them I stand firmly planted on my ground of wondering what the hell possesses people to push themselves to such limits. Whether what they do is deemed right or wrong in your eyes, chances are what they do is something you can't fathom. It is the stuff of dreams and they, the Blue Angels, are like flying rattlesnakes waking you from your sleepy-head, from a world obsessed with headlines, deadlines and the horrid notion of the possibility of bread lines.
After the show my friends and I settled in for some pints and pitchers at a local pub. To my surprise there were more than a few sailors and Naval officers among the bar patrons. Like the Angels, their presence could not be ignored: handsome young men, clean cut in crispy white uniforms, shiny shoes and the hats hats hats all piled up on a ledge, I imagine for the purpose of keeping them tidy while they watched football or played air hockey. There was certainly a hat for every serviceman in the joint: starchy white and rounded sailors caps and wide-brimmed and polished officer's hats adorned in gold ornaments and filigree. Put together with the flamboyant aircraft we'd watched all afternoon, this picture of seamen at play reminded me of a movie, hard. This meeting of the real and the fantasy of the days' dealings was noticed by everyone and so when it was declared, in friendly buzzing slurs, that before the end of the night Top Gunmust be seen, the decision was unanimous. I hadn't seen the film in quite some time and the thought of having to see it with such friends as those who, like me, so suddenly cultured a need for speed sent me into a frenzy of excitement.